The website recommended by Ms.Nights is quite good.  And I agree with her
that achieving diversity in the museum profession is not a high priority in
many institutions.   I hope, with her, that we can start discussing this
openly and intelligently on this List.

Diversity is measured in many ways, not just racial.

Not so many years ago, a well educated North Carolina woman was turned down
for a teaching job in Philadelphia because of her mountain dialect - how,
she was told, could she actually teach children with "that" manner of
speaking?  She was there while her husband went through seminary.  She
became cook at a jail out of shock and frustration at how people with her
"twang" were being treated in the Philadelphia job market.

Subtle forms of maintaining "sameness" do exist, even in government museums.
For example, some search committees try to sense how well this or that
finalist would fit into the environment.  As we recruit staff, we should be
seeking newcomers who are ready to make waves, challenge the assumptions,
get the senior people off their behinds when necessary...in other words,
bring life to the internal culture.

We all have those times when we fully appreciate and can celebrate our
diversity.  When the chief of the Chickahominy tribe in eastern Virginia
died, I attended his funeral.  I was shocked to find in an overcrowded
church that a front row seat was reserved for me, a simple museum director.
It was for a quiet friendship we had developed over six years, sharing
stories while sitting on an old log, and I had no idea it had meant that
much to his family.  A few months later, my family was included in the
annual Chickahominy community festival near Thanksgiving -- a day for big
eating, everything killed in the wild, or cooked from what the harvest
provided.  One thing led to another, and the following Thanksgiving they
were all invited to the Governor's Mansion for Thanksgiving...and though I'm
no longer in that region, that kinship is growing.

Diversity.  In the rush of keeping our museums solvent, politically correct,
and avant garde, we find it far too easy to forget about human beings at the
"caring" level.

I developed here a policy that any staff member who spends time in community
service work (his or her choice) will be compensated for that time.  So far,
I am still serving as an example only -- and am about to go to the next
level of leading the staff to think differently.

Each of us can resolve (I hate that word) to "adopt" someone out there among
the disadvantaged, and bring that person into our professional lives in a
way that helps that individual light up, see a different world.  Create an
intern out of someone who has no friends, or whose life is shot to hell.
Mentor a school child who needs an adult to talk with, to see a wider world
out there.   I've done, and am doing, both.  A former intern has now
completed grad school and is on the staff of a museum library.  A 5th grade
boy with no parenting will get straight A's in a few weeks and brings me
fossils and other such finds every Tuesday when we meet at school for 90
minutes.  I think he will one day become an archaeologist--even if his home
doesn't hold together.

We can help at that individual level, if we care enough about our
profession.  I am not being boastful in using these examples, but I am proud
to be committed to searching for the gifts that every living person has, and
sometimes I fail.  The effort is well worth it.  The beauty in our diversity
is marvelous. Our museums need it in their staffs and in their attitudes.

Ross Weeks Jr.
[log in to unmask]


----- Original Message -----
From: Indigo Nights <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Truly, I believe diversity is to be celebrated and
> should not be ignored.  I wholeheartedly encourage the
> group to examine this topic and to consider enrolling
> in the subject newsletter.
>
> >
> ><http://www.livingdemocracy.org/dialogueon.html

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